In Water
by ModestDragon
Summary: Hiccup suffers yet another near death experience, and Toothless snaps. A long one-shot. Rated T for mild language and violence
1. Chapter 1: In Water (REWORK)

Post A/N (**PLEASE READ**): After seven months of writing this first chapter and having just barely finished the story as a whole, someone pointed out to me that the first chapter is actually really freaking confusing at parts because of the fact that I jump around a lot, and in result, it's really hard to tell what's going on and immediately turns people off. So I'm really sorry for that guys. I was told before that it was kind of hard to follow, but I guess I didn't take it seriously enough. And now, several months later, I'm gonna try to fix it by literally prefacing each segment with the point in time at the beginning of each one. I hope it helps, and even if you are still a little confused, try and read on. It gets much better and it will all make sense. It's just this chapter that I strung together poorly. If you are STILL confused about something afterwards or see something I could do to make it easier to follow, hit me up with a message. I'll be happy to help and appreciate the feedback.

Anyway, here it is. I hope you enjoy!

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><p><strong>PRESENT<strong>**- IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING EVENTS OF CLASS **

On this particular day, when paws broiled on rocks and houses turned into walk-in ovens, I didn't believe it was the remarkable heat of the early evening being onslaughted from a more extraordinarily hot sun that made me the equivalent of a writhing-red piece of coal. In other words, I was on fire, but the sun wasn't to blame for that. Sure, it was hot, but I knew it was a deeper resonance that made me consider jumping into a lake and seeing if it would curl up as steam.

However, don't be misconstrued. The evening was truthfully so blazingly warm that all the lakes around were probably already long dried up, giving reasoning to why all the humans were dropping like flies, and I swore I could hear the sizzling of the scales on my back behind me simmering like a boiling pot. That bizarre fact concerned me for a second and I thought for a second that I should quickly step in the shade to save myself. That follow-up thought stirred actual, startling concern in me, because, for the briefest of moments, I _truly_ believed if I didn't get out of the sun, I would begin to melt.

_I wholeheartedly believed for a moment that my _real body_ would _melt_ under the sun _if _I didn't escape it, like I was a black ice cube. I was CONVINCED for a moment that was a REAL, POSSIBLE THING and it was happening. _I had to roll back and slap myself mentally, worried I was having a heat stroke. Is having insane thoughts a side-effect of heat stroke?

Maybe it was because of how rare hot days were on Berk, and it was messing with my head. Or how unstable my feelings and temperament were. I didn't really know why I would invest myself in something so ridiculous. Gods, I should probably get some water.

Recovering from my tangent, at any rate, I shattered the idea that the visible heat waves in the air were doing more than minutely contributing to the reality that I felt like the sun had brunt me to the crisp black color I was. It was thanks to a whole different reason. To be frank, I couldn't even feel the heat of the sun as it set under the ocean, not anymore (another symptom of heat stroke?).

It was a inferno inside that made me hiss at the touch and happy to burn anyone who weren't careful. The figurative fire of my temper was lit in a long past heat of the moment, and I was hungry for more fuel of any kind to keep it alive, to relieve the fidgety tension that racked my body: A person with enough backbone to try a "_What the hell were you thinking!?" _or _"You had to do that in front of everyone?!" _so I could have reason to yell, even if it wasn't likely.

A stroke of bitter luck would supply an argument, but I would have rather settled my fury by taking it out properly on the one who deserved it. Like that insolent, thick-headed dragon who I wished deeply to turn tail after he fled and to face me.

He had been the slimy bag of scales who provided me a match to ignite to. The Deadly Nadder attacked one of our students in the ring during a lesson without reason. It woke up a side of me that rarely saw the light of day anymore, and now it was writhing and demanding to be attended. I wanted to unleash this wrathful fire upon him. A fire that transcended the heat of the day itself if he could imagine that.

Nevertheless, I was grateful he wasn't coming back. If he did, I wasn't confident I could restrain myself, and nor I or the academy needed a fight to deal with. Having a much messier conclusion than a simple heated argument, it could be fatal in a school where our intention was to teach, collaborate, and bring species together. This alliance had been established only a year ago, and it still needed to plant its roots- we needed this to work. It was fragile, and only a small nudge to it would tip it into a downward spiral of sorts. Still, it _really_ would have felt great if I could char him.

As I sat aside to the side of the gate and trembled on the edge of the island, once watching the Nadder fly off, now simply extracting myself from everyone, looking over the raving waves smash into the rocks far below. I was too distracted to notice daybreak dropping beautiful glittering gemstones across the endless water's surfaces. I was groping through my skull, pulling together the confrontation that only vaguely imprinted my brain, wanting to make sense of it and figure exactly _how_ I handled it in my frenzy. My memory was never up front in those situations, so it was difficult.

This particularly prideful Nadder was ridiculously infuriating with his presence at the class session. It seemed his only purpose of showing up was to be an ass and do his absolute best to screw things up and bother whoever he targeted. The day's class was a group of very young children, all frail and panicky, still partially intimidated by all the big dragons who were trying to walk them through the instructions. The Nadder relished in staring them down and scaring them, but eventually, he lost his fun as they all avoided him on the other side of the ring where he couldn't get to without going through us. After an hour of frustration and growing hate on my part of him not leaving and how I couldn't make him leave without force, he deliberately sat next to a pile of diverse flying gear and waited for an unguarded victim. A boy inevitably went over, without any regard to the dragon in his excitement to fly for the very first time with Snotlout and Hookfang. He shot a fireball right before the kid's toes, terrifying him. I turned on my heels at the explosion and finally snapped -a jarring, bone shaking snap- and I threw the loser out.

Regardless of my difficulty to stitch everything together, my rage alongside the raw flesh and blood on my claw was a good indication that I taught that slime-crusted needlehead a special lesson of my own. The message being- don't screw with my students, or my rider, unless you wanted to screw with me. He knew well enough now that he didn't want that.

An audacious coward, I thought. Trying to harm a very young human child and threatening Hiccup when he stepped in the middle of it, saying he would "bury countless needles in his throat".

I couldn't help but wonder why I didn't kill him.

I stopped trembling and let out a frustrated groan, scolding myself.

It was that kind of thinking that made last night so terrible. I didn't kill him because it wasn't necessary and it would have made matters worse than they were. I didn't kill him because I was thinking logically. If I would have retained some of that logic and reason last night, I wouldn't be in the excruciating situation I was in, but it was too late for that.

_Don't think like the impulsive idiot you know screws things up. You did the right thing _this time. _You can applaud yourself for this one, but not too much._

It might have felt good that I avoided this stack of problems, but I was already struggling to carry the rest.

Dammit, what was I going to do...

Like a sudden storm dropping overhead from the acknowledgement of last night's events, it rained down with some mild and used-up frustration to wash out and replace the anger, however, it was mostly the regret and shame of the royally sucky night that took its place.

I wanted to fix what I had done wrong, but I knew wasn't in the best frame of mind to make anything better. I needed to settle down and lose the energy before making amends with the one I illegitimately tagged fault on. I was at fault. It was my fault, dammit.

Until then, I needed some water. I didn't feel good, and my skull was swimming through a spectrum of moods dangerously quick. Intuition told me I should avoid shriveling up prior to confronting my problems head on.

I didn't notice at the time, but the fire apparently caught on something. I watched as the teenagers carried buckets up and down the steps from the dock urgently, in such a hurry they didn't notice all the water was splashing out of the buckets on the way there. Everyone was yelling to each other and cooperating, and I heard stomps inside the walls; probably the dragons trying to help how they could.

I found I was right when I looked inside the gate. The pile of flying gear the boy was intending to grab from was on fire, the leather shriveling and stinking. Fishlegs and a little girl I couldn't recall the name of were pouring water on it while Meatlug attempted to stomp it out. They had enough help regardless of me and they were taking care of it, so I stayed out of the way.

What a waste of equipment. It will be a while to replace all of it.

A boy with a very eventful evening ran around me with a bucket fourth-the-way full, determined to help.

|| Danny! || I called.

He turned on his heel immediately, splashing the rest of the saltwater in his face. "Huh? Oh, hi Mr. Night Fury! Thanks for saving me!"

The boy was timid, but energetic with the ones he's warmed up to. I imagined Hiccup was just like him at the age.|| I told you Dan, you don't need to call me that. My name is Toothless. || I reminded him again, even though he perfectly well knew my name. I quickly glanced around. || Are you okay? He didn't get you, did he? ||

"No! I'm fine!" he assured me enthusiastically, "It was really close, but you threw that jerk out, so it's okay. Man, that was _so _awesome! You totally showed him, the way you roared really loud and then you-."

|| Alright, alright. I know, lad, I was there. || I stopped him, || Listen. You need to be careful of that dragon. If you see him again, tell someone immediately, preferably one of us. Don't go near him. Do you understand? ||

"Yes." he said, looking a bit pale, "But, do you think he going to hurt me?" he asked.

|| He's not going to touch you. || I said with undeniable certainty. || Just be safe, okay? ||

"Um, okay Mr. Ni-"

|| Toothless. ||

"Toothless." he corrected with a nod and a smile before running off to the dying fire equipped with a empty bucket. "Bye!"

I turned and started for the well once more. Nobody tried approaching me. I was glad for it. My initial desire to yell at someone had lifted, but I couldn't handle anymore talking. I wanted to be left alone.

I shoved my head in the cold water of the well, smoothing my rising headache. After a few huge gulps, I began to lift my head back up, then quickly submerged it again.

I waited until Hiccup was in the ring until I walked back to the cliff. I passed the opening to the inside once more, eyeing the teen's back sadly as I continued past. Seeing Hiccup once again seemed to do me in. My legs felt heavy. I dragged myself to the grass and laid down, letting a paw drape over the edge. I was too exhausted to stand anymore.

Of course, someone attacking our students would make me mad, and it did. But nothing could nothing set me off like it did when someone threatened Hiccup. Layers of myself would instantaneously be slashed and torn away to reveal a very protective beast within, a part Hiccup at times was concerned with. I grew so furious some points I couldn't even fathom the anger looking back. And if someone hurt him...

I wasn't offended by his friends and their hollow threats, it was in their nature and it was healthy to joke around with each other. I understood when Hiccup broke windows with his unstable inventions and was yelled at for it, he needed that too. However, I would never stand there composedly while some stranger promised Hiccup specific hurt. Naturally, I would rip their tongue out and jam it down their throat to save them the trouble of knowing when to hold it.

That was a justified response on my part, but I needed to be capable of smothering that natural reaction. It was that inability and its control over me that drove everything into the ditch and its explosive conclusion during last night's fight. It was the impulsive side of me I couldn't help, and how much I cared about Hiccup that amplified it. Though, for him, it would be hard to believe that at this point. After all the things I said, it was only because of _how much I cared about him_. What was the human term for that? Oh, right. _Bullshit._

Later, I would submit my neck to the line and hope. Whether I had to bow to him and beg for forgiveness, I didn't care. He was my boy, and I was a **jerk**. The biggest, crappiest, rudest, meanest jerk in the existence of the world. It was my mistake, and I earned whatever potential tragedy that came from it.

I rested my head on the ground, watching the sunset. The sun snaked through the clouds gorgeously in a blast of pinks, purples, and oranges. A beautiful goodbye and a beckon to the night on the other side.

_Gods, don't let this be the end._

##

**PRESENT**

"Toothless?"

I jerked slightly at the sudden sound, opening my eyes. Disoriented and confused, I looked around and found the water still far below and the sun long absent from the horizon, the moon spreading it's ghostly lights across the deep dark ocean. Realizing I fell asleep, I pushed myself up.

"Hey." I heard again.

I turned, finding Astrid looking at me with a raised brow and a twitch of a smile. "Are you alright?' she asked.

|| Yes, I'm fine. || I finally answered, blinking harshly. || I fell asleep. || I told her, hiding my embarrassment.

"Here?" she asked incredulously, then sat down next to me with a simple "Alright then". Her hair gently whipped in the breeze, and she pulled out a hair tie to pull it up in a bun. "So, what's up?" she said through the metal pin in her teeth, and then stabbed it into the blonde hump on her head. "You seemed pretty upset today."

Typically, Astrid wasn't one to beat around to bush. She was always straight to the point. One of the things I liked about her. || Aside from what happened, no, I wasn't upset. || I told her, but I would be stupid to think she would believe that. I knew I couldn't hide it very well.

"You sure?" she looked at me.

I nodded. || What are you still doing out here? You should be in the village by now. || I asked her quickly.

"I was closing up the ring, I volunteered to do it myself since everyone was wiped out. Apparently you were pretty haggard too; the sun I guess. I don't mind though, I don't have anything waiting for me at home."

I was fond of the girl. She was always a lot of fun, and she cared a lot about Hiccup. I welcomed her company when the boy wanted to hang out with her. She was kind, strong, and playful, and I encouraged the inevitable relationship between them. They both blushed, but no one could deny how much they liked each other.

The girl dangled her feet over the edge. It was a drop that would do a lot more than sprang a human ankle, and she leaned boldly over the edge and peered at the rocks below. "What about Hiccup? How's he?"

I'm sure I twitched, but I pretended I didn't. "He's fine." I stated. I didn't want to talk about him.

"Where is he?"

|| I don't know. ||

"That's weird. When he's hiding away, he's usually with you."

There was heavy silence hanging in the air for a few moments. I could finally breathe when she changed subjects. "Well, thanks for getting rid of that Nadder, even if you did scare the shit out of everyone. I was convinced for a second that our next lesson was going to be 'how to clean up after your dragon's fight'."

It could have been. Without my fresh exercise of self-restraint, it would have been. Thank the gods it wasn't. || He was a jerk. || The little boy's human term was satisfying to say, oddly. I found myself using it in my thoughts and saying it out loud often.

"We've tolerated much worse." She supplied.

I huffed. || I didn't have the patience tonight. ||

"I thought you weren't upset." she looked at me.

I evaded. || Let's not forget how hot it was. ||

She squinted for a moment, "Yeah, I guess it would throw anyone out of the loop here." she settled and stared at the dirt for a few seconds. "Hey, I got a question." she said after a few seconds. I grunted, not very excited to hear whatever came next.

"Did something happen?" she suddenly asked.

The question caught me off guard and I looked at her. || Excuse me? || _Thor Almighty don't do this right now._

My heart clenched and my blood banged in my ears. I didn't get this worked up over nothing unless it involved Hiccup. It was what the boy did to me.

She locked eyes with me as if she caught me red-handed. A rush of irritation washed through me.

|| Don't stare at me expectantly like I know what you are talking about. || I snorted and cut off the eye contact, annoyed.

"I think something happened between you and Hiccup." she announced.

_HOW do you just- what? _

I caught myself hesitating, quickly overcoming the lump of surprise in my throat. I thought I could hear the effort of it when I asked, || And why would you think that? ||.

I think she noticed it too, and rolled her eyes, "Nobody could ignore how you were avoiding one another like total strangers, but everybody was sweating too much to give it much thought. I stayed after because I wanted to talk to you. Did something happen?" she asked again.

|| We didn't get in a fight. || I told her bluntly.

"I didn't suggest that." she said with a raised brow.

I scolded myself. || Nothing happened, Astrid_. _|| I groaned. || Enough. Please. ||

"I don't know how to respond to that." she said after a moment of studying me, "Every time Hiccup is brought up, you grow frantic. That doesn't scream 'everything is dandy' to me."

|| It should be a sign that I don't want to talk about it then. ||

"What's the big deal?" she asked, exasperated, "It can't be that bad, can it?"

|| I don't know! || I snapped. She looked shocked and confused, and then concerned.

I sighed, lowering my voice.|| Did he say anything to you? ||

"What? No. I couldn't get a word out of him."

|| Then I can't say anything. It wouldn't be fair if I told you. || If he didn't want her to know, I will respect that.

"Why? Is it his fault?"

_Humans loved the gossip, didn't they._

|| No. ||

"...Yours?"

|| Yes. ||

"Hm." she thought and stood up, trading the cliff for a much safer wall-lean. She looked proud she was able to notice something was up. "Well, when did you guys last talk?"

Even if she was being nosy, it was kind of relieving to get it out. || Last night. ||

"Whoa. It must have been worth something then." she laughed dryly.

I slept overnight in the cove and didn't return to the village until our class was half-way through. It took me an hour to build the courage and strength to fly out of the our shaded sanctuary and show up to simply see him there.

"You know, if it was your fault, you are the one who needs to fix it." she told me.

|| I know. || I responded, a little annoyed by her tone.

"And you should know that that kid will avoid you at all costs if he knows you are mad at him. Maybe you've never been caught up in that, but I certainly have."

|| Astrid. I _know _that. || I stared at her.

The girl sighed, "Yeah, sorry. Of course you do. I know it's not my business what happened, and I'm sorry for trying to claw it out of you. But I want you to know that I watched him go down to the dock about an hour ago and I haven't seen him come back yet. He's probably still down there, and more or less, I'd count on him hoping you'll come down. Everyone's gone. This is your perfect opportunity."

I shifted anxiously. || Okay. ||

She didn't move or suggest she had anything else to say. She simply stood there, staring at me, waiting and expectant.

I looked back at her, and then I jerked my head back with a brief growl of frustration. || There's no reason for me to wait any longer, but you can't blame me for hesitating. Don't wait up for me. ||

"Yeah. Everyone's been in your position, Fury, I walk myself into it all the time, and I totally understand. However, you are right. You have no reason to wait, so why should you?" she shrugged, "I can't help you with how you can do it, but you know how to talk to that kid better than anyone else. You two are one of the same. You can figure it out."

I stayed where I was, but looked towards the other side where the docks were. I turned back. || That doesn't exactly help me, but thanks. ||

She laughed warmly, "Huh. I never thought I would see you this way." I glared at her again, but instead of everything I thought she would do, she came up to me and clutched both my shoulders with a gentle expression. "It's really heartwarming how worried you are, about your rider not forgiving you or whatever for what you did, it's sweet. I wish Stormfly could spare one moment of her preening to at least look at me." she winked.

"But, frankly, it's pretty stupid the way you are thinking." she padded my shoulder harshly and stepped back, "I don't know what happened between you two, but I'm positive it wouldn't pull you guys apart. I don't think anything could. He needs you Toothless." she dug a hard finger into my chest, "You need him too."

|| If you are trying to dig out my heart and show me the truth about how much I care about him or something, it isn't necessary. || I pushed her hand down.

She must have forgotten about it seeing it in the ring and couldn't quite see it in the dark until it was in her face. "Wow. Does your leg have anything to do with it?" she asked, sounding impressed.

|| Astrid. || I reminded her.

"Fine, fine. Don't wanna talk about it. I get it." she raised her hands in defeat. She looked back at me again, smiled, and padded my shoulder before walking past. "Goodnight, and good luck! I'll see the original duo tomorrow. _Together._"

I watched the girl as she got to the bridge and then I pondered the ground. I was weirded out by the whole exchange. I was never one who needed a cheerleader, and I never thought Astrid was particularly capable and sensitive enough to take that role. How weird it might have been, it definitely raised my spirits, and I felt a little more confident.

Still, I looked towards the stairs down to the docks, and my heart began to beat faster.

**##**

**PRESENT**

Hiccup was no where to be seen. I considered the possibility that Astrid was wrong and he slipped away with her noticing, already home or ducking in the back of the forge. The boy could be pretty stealthy sometimes despite his clumsiness. I almost turned back to climb the stairs when I noticed something strange.

Like a footstep in the sand, I almost missed it in the dark. But, Hiccup being Hiccup, always finding ways to do things differently, left behind something more distinctive. I saw, standing upright, lodged between the boards at the end of the dock, what you could call a footprint if you stretched the concept a ways.

There was a prosthetic lacking a Hiccup at the end of then dock, all ready and positioned for a stump to be attached. Next to it was a toppled stack of empty crates; more brushing along the beach. They had fallen off.

The crates were spilled across the dock in a way that suggested he tripped into them and fell into the water. Hiccup wasn't here, but he had to be. He couldn't go anywhere without his leg.

It was silent and still.

I stood on the shore, the sand pushing between my toes and sticking unpleasantly to the pads of my feet. I stared at the deep, dark, and ghastly water across the dock. Nothing moved, neither did I. I didn't make a sound, and I waited.

There was nothing. A front absent of life.

The water looked impossibly black, unimaginably deep. Like liquid death.

The waves remained uninhibited from a single stir. A memory introduced raw fear into my tingling scales.

##

**FLASHBACK: FOUR-OR-SO MONTHS PREVIOUS**

I held the lanky teen in my embrace as he struggled angrily and fearfully, while at the same time gripping my neck for what he thought was his dear life. I was sitting on my haunches as I pinned him to my chest and he finally found my knees under the water, now using them to his advantage as he tried to slide up out of my grip and crawl over my shoulder. The boy was wearing no shirt, and his wet skin proved hard to grip. The splashing water shimmered through the fresh forest air as the sun pierced the droplets with its light.

|| Hiccup, stop! || I roared. The water was at his chest, and the rattled boy must have been convinced it would somehow pull him down further and smother him mercilessly.

"No! Let me go! I don't want to do this anymore. I can't do this!" he yelled, coughing and panic trembling through his frame, "Just let me go! _Please, _bud!"

|| Stop, just listen to me, you're fine! You are okay! Don't be scared! ||

"No, I'm done! Swimming is overrated, I don't care. Never again." he said quickly and almost slipped out of my hold and over my shoulder to the dry grass a couple yards away. Before he could, I worked my legs his stomach and cocooned my wings around him, holding him in a tight embrace. He was stuck and had no chance of getting away. "You promised you'd take this seriously, Toothless!" he wriggled and yelled, furious, "You promised you wouldn't mess with me on this! I trusted you!"

|| Stop accusing and listen to me for a second, Hiccup! ||

"No! You saw me, I almost drowned!"

|| We are out here to _learn_! And you went out by yourself! Why did you go out by yourself? ||

"I don't know! I was excited! But now I am well aware that I have no chance with one leg and I want out. Just bring me back Toothless! I don't want to do this!" he demanded with a pitiful edge to it.

|| We aren't giving up on this thirty seconds in! You just scared yourself. Stop, stop struggling! I am not letting you go! ||

He finally stopped writhing after another moment. "This isn't fair, Toothless!" he moaned, "Please. For the love of Thor, _please _let me go_._" The boy gripped my neck and begged into my scales, gasping on the precious air. I felt bad, but if he got out of the lake, I didn't know if I could get him back in.

|| Stop, just relax. I got you. Nothing is going to happen. || I tried to soothe him.

"This is stupid." he settled with himself. "This is stupid. I only have one leg, I can't swim anymore! There is no way." he continued to hyperventilate.

|| No no no, there absolutely is a way. I don't know what you were thinking, but you can't expect to jump right in and be fine, It will take a lot of practice and time. Just forget about all that for right now though, you don't need to worry about it. We came here so you can experience it after so long and to have fun. You had a scare, but I'm not going to let it happen again. You'll love this, I swear. ||

"Toothless, I- I sank like a rock! I kicked and everything but it didn't make a difference! This isn't something I can enjoy anymore!"

|| Just calm down and hear the words I'm saying to you, okay? You can do this, and you're going to _like _doing this, but I need you to give it a chance. I'll be right beside you the whole time, and you never need to let go unless you want to. We are doing this for the fun of it, nothing else, and I want you to have fun. Here, look at me, Hiccup. || He wasn't trying to get away anymore, so I took one off one of my paws to gently push his chin up. || I need you to trust me, alright? I'm _not_ going to let you go. ||

He struggled with himself, and then with growl mixed with a sigh, he was fine. "I-uh...phew. Okay, okay. I'm sorry, you're right, it just scared me. A lot. Ugh, I need a minute."

|| That's fine. || I held him up, and he tried to steady his heart.

"Even if we do this, I don't know if I'll be able to swim again." he stated after he'd regained himself.

|| We'll take it in stride, just like you did with walking, and just like we did with flying. We are kind of champs at re-learning fundamental things now. || I smiled.

"I guess you're right. We can do this." he said with new found confidence.

|| It couldn't be that hard. ||

"No, it couldn't."

|| You ready? ||

"Yeah, but let's stick to the shallow end for a little while. Where I can stand."

|| That's the plan. Get on my back and hold on tight. ||

I let him go and he tucked his hands under the loose straps we put myself in so he had something easy to hold on to. He drifted behind me, weightless in the still water. His face was beaming with excitement now. "Whoa. Oh man, it has definitely been a long time." he laughed, enchanted and thrilled at the long lost feeling.

|| Do you mind taking the long route there? || I asked.

"No, let's do it." he laughed.

|| Caught your breathe? ||

"Yup."

|| Take a deep one, here we go! ||

We plunged under the still, cool, lake water- a territory Hiccup had yet to re-master- and cut through the deep blue faster than Hiccup would ever be capable of. We ended up spending an hour in the lake, swimming, splashing, diving, and relaxing. The big, crooked smile never left Hiccup's face. Even after the excitement, when we were drying off under the hot sun, he was glowing with exhilaration. We went back to the cove countless times after that to continue learning, but Hiccup still hadn't quite gotten the hang of it. He could swim by himself for more than a minute.

##

**PRESENT**

|| Oh, no. || I breathed out and sprinted down the dock. || Hiccup! _HICCUP!_ ||

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><p>Post AN: I'm sure it was strange to read with those disgusting bold notes prefacing everything, and you could accuse me of being lazy doing it that way instead of clearly expressing it through my actual writing (I wouldn't deny it), but it was necessary, and I really hope it helped. I'm so sorry it was so hard to follow before.

If you are confused to why Hiccup and Toothless weren't totally avoiding each other after their "fight", it's because they both care a lot about and need to teach at the dragon academy, so they both went anyway knowing the other would be there. And maybe some other reasons if you want to read into it more, which you might if you continued on :3.

Nonetheless, you can find out what actually happened between Hiccup and Toothless in the next chapter! Thank you so much for reading and sticking through. I promise it gets better.

Leave a review y'all. It can really help, like how the person pointed the problems of this chapter to me. It's really appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2: Shallows

A/N: The second chapter omigod every one of you probably forgot about this, but I took so long because I wasn't happy with it so I completely revised and changed it. Anyway, it was originally going to be two parts, but now it's going to be three, and I hope you guys enjoy it. This A/N sucks because I really need to get going to school right now but I want to post it before I go.

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><p>"Shallows"<p>

The day before began at home when I woke up to the rhythmic and familiar sound of a light smack and a hard clank against wood bounding towards me- I couldn't place in my half-awake-half-sleep it until I heard a overjoyed "_Lazybones!_", and I jerked my head up. Hiccup was disproving his role as a rider and was flying towards me for a change. The fishbone landed on my back with a barely audible thud, laughing and bouncing up and down, cheering: "It's a beautiful day, bud, and guess what the flowers smell like? _Adventure_. Get up, eat, be excited, and let's go! Come on buddy! Comeoncomeoncomeoncomeon!". I followed him downstairs, groggy and grumpy, but I was just as excited as he was.

We had been looking forward to an escape for a few weeks now, an entire day of our own to get away and take to the sky and distant lands, optimistically hoping to cross some crazy adventure like some hidden treasure trove brimming with pretty jewels we could bring back and trade to graciously rob Johann of everything he had, or perhaps we would find a mysterious object with magical properties in the ruins of fallen underground kingdom under the ocean; a necklace that would blink anything into existence simply with the thought of the beholder. Bright light and curling smoke, and then, _poof_, it was there! _A leg for you, a fin for me, and a consistent supply of fresh fish coming right up! _

...Well, maybe.

However unlikely, anything was possible, we thought, and we loved sharing these pipe-dream predictions with each other. Hiccup was much better at it though. The stories he made up filled me with gleeful energy as I quietly identified with the characters in the books he would read me during late nights with their magical tales we could only imagine. Despite being a little embarrassed of how my stories were almost borderline blatant rip-offs the stuff we read together, Hiccup didn't seem to notice and loved mine as well, and we laughed and scoffed at the ridiculous ideas we bounced around, trying to top each other in the Absolutely Asinine department.

The sun had only just surfaced on the dark water. I told Hiccup we needed to stop laughing or else my wings would lock up, and after he calmed down, he sighed. "These stories are fun and all," he said, "but I'm just glad we are finally out here. And, let's be honest, the fact that we are doing this is in itself a miracle. You can't compare that stuff to this, in my opinion."

I was sure he was referring to finally getting out of the village as a miracle, but it reminded me of something I didn't really think much about anymore. About how bizarre it was that this human was my best friend and my number one, and I planned to live out the rest of my life with him under my wing (there was also the part where we started a revolution and changed life as we knew it and all that jazz). Way back when, I could have never imagined things to turn out this way. But, again, anything was possible, and now I could never imagine my life any other way.

|| You're right. We should be grateful. || I smirked. || Especially you. || After a few moments, I looked back at him. It seemed to sink in and he understood that I was talking about us, possibly because he was thinking the same thing.

He rolled his eyes and faked a single laugh, looking away, unimpressed with me, but he still couldn't help the smirk on his face. "Yeah, yeah, you conceited 'god-send'."

|| Hey. You're alright too. || I allowed.

He shook his head, smiling now. "Wow, thanks. I'm very glad."

I grinned proudly at him, silently deciding it had been too mellow for too long between us. I guess he could see the not-so-sincere intentions I was hiding behind my toothless smile. When he gazed back at me, still falsely unamused, he latched on only a second before I suddenly sealed my wings and we plummeted three-hundred feet. We barely nudged the water when I leveled out.

Hiccup sounded smug, "Huh. Sorry, bud, I know you like the back of this hand." He proceeded to pat my neck. "Don't sweat it, though, the gods have given me duller gifts than you."

The morning lifted off wonderfully. All of our stress and responsibilities were pushed momentarily aside for a refreshing afternoon densely filled with talking, buckling laughter, exhilaration, and relaxing. Most of that took place as Hiccup and I expertly surfed the bluer beyond, threading the clouds with designs and skimming the water's surface until we picked out new islands on the horizons. We touched down on almost all of them and had a look around. Hiccup had a hunger for discovery, I found, and I began to yearn for it as much as he after so many untouched lands had settled under my paws and his foot. Since he had infected me with this insatiable urge, we had found many places, and we knew we were only getting started. There was a whole world out there, sleeping, waiting for us; it would take a lifetime to finish the map we were building, if it were even possible before our days ran dry. But, we weren't discouraged by that.

So, after hours of back-to-back blood rushing excitement and life threatening (but, _Gods_, _so _addictive) sky dives, we were both spent and settled down on a comfortable beach we found during our last solo adventure. I initially rejected coming back to the particular spot, but gave way in the end. Hiccup was ecstatic and weirdly passionate about this beach, and I hated it. It was, as he claimed, "The most gorgeous he had ever seen," and begged to come back so he could try drawing it. I sighed. Even when I whole-heartedily disagreed with his affection towards the sad beach, I couldn't outright refuse. We marked the rest of the islands for later on a piece of paper and flew.

I frowned at the coast. A couple meters off the bank, it was ravaged with slimy boulders and pillar-like rocks protruding from the water, concealing the view across the horizon and making it difficult to swim around if we chose to. There was also an old and small ship wedged in the rocky shore off to the left. It had obviously crashed here many moons ago, crumbling with time and decay and fungus fusing the wood to the smooth stones underneath. The sagging structure and not-view were upsetting to look at. I grumbled and laid down at the edge of the beach, dipping my claws in the warm water. Ultimately, I didn't complain much that there were countless better beaches than this, because I didn't have any real reason to. The beautiful day was consistent wherever we were, and I couldn't ruin by being a baby. Hiccup insisted he wasn't in the mood to swim anyway, and I didn't see the point in swimming otherwise, so I couldn't whine about the useless rocky shore further than the fact that it was ugly. Nevertheless, the odd human thought these things gave it a beautiful character- a place with a story or something like that because of the ship (blah blah blah) and we wouldn't see it often. I pitied the poor, unexposed boy, promising to show him spots that were _actually_ beautiful.

With the sun behind us, closing in on the peak of the mountain nestled in the forest, I watched him with a smirk as he sat in the shallow water and battled with the fish that jumped on the hook. The bank was apparently rich with many different fish of many sizes, colors, and tastes, and I got some good entertainment watching him struggle with the big ones. He fell many times, not finding traction with his prosthetic in the sand, and I had to help him when one almost dragged him into the ocean: a huge, juicy black sea bass, which I ate happily. Bass weren't my favorite, but I found it particularly tasty. And I had to grant him that- the one reason alone I didn't _despise_ the spot. The fish were delicious and plentiful.

After I filled myself up, I crawled up the beach and slid into the sand, immediately getting tugged into a comfortable nap. Hiccup followed after me to begin sketching.

Flowing into the lull of the day, we had predicted a lot of things to happen, but all of them were of the good sort: amazing coincidences that would change our lives for the better. However, where we inevitably ended was nothing like that. In hindsight, the reality of what was to come would have seemed just as impossible as finding a mythical underwater city. The beautiful day came to an unfathomable sour halt I couldn't have prepared for. Washed out, suddenly plummeting into a heart shattering fight, we couldn't step over the remains of it all, unable to cross the broken glass between us of fear of something we didn't want to face. Two hours passed as I lived through a pleasant dream in stark contrast to what I would wake up to. If it were supposed to be a premonition, it was doing a terrible job.

When I woke up from my heavenly sunbathe, I flipped onto my stomach and looked over to the water, not finding Hiccup in his original spot from where he fished. When I scanned the beach, I found him perched on the tip of the ship. He was standing on the part that once, a long time ago, could have been described as the _prow_, as Hiccup told me: "the front". The back half of the ship was gone with the waves, sitting back submerged in the water at an angle, standing up like a boat never should. Hiccup had to hold on to what was left of the railing to keep from slipping. He used his other hand to block the sun as he peered through the jagged water garden, looking for something. It made me anxious to see him so high up and at a radical angle. He wasn't great with slopes. I jogged to the base of the ship.

He saw me approach. "Don't try climbing up! It would definitely collapse."

I didn't plan on it. I peered around to the other side, where it sunk in the water. Some scraps of material from the rotten sail were still attached to the thick beam that remained. I figured he used it to pull himself up. || What are you doing? || I called up.

"Eh, just wanted to check out the ship a little." he shrugged. "But, I can't find my shirt. I thinking maybe it got caught by the current, but I'm not sure I left it that close to the water. Have you seen it?"

|| No. Stop leaning like that, you're going to fall. || I was actually napping on his shirt up the beach. I hadn't noticed.

"Ugh." he groaned. "It's at times like these that I envy your scales. I think I can feel myself turning into a tomato." He wiped the sweat off his forehead and smiled. "And don't worry so much, I'm coming down." He was about to climb over, but he stopped, "Oh! Hey, I was thinking we could look through this wreckage. I already found this." He leaned out of sight and then threw a book over. It plopped in the sand solidly. Water had condensed within its pages and dried it into a rock. The green color of the binding was largely drained. "I can't make out what it says on the cover and all the pages are fused together, but it looks almost ancient." he said as he looked down at me, eager and enchanted. "Wanna bet we'd find a treasure chest if we looked inside?" He was grinning now.

_A child at heart. Always. _|| I don't know what you expect, but alright, maybe, just get down before you hurt yourself. || I ushered him.

"Yar'!" he exclaimed. "Let's find the booty!"

I couldn't help but snort at that one. || You are so strange, boy. ||

"I know, sorry." He swung the remaining fabric of the sail over the side and started climbing down. It was attached at the very rightmost of the beam that crossed the one sticking out of ship. _What were those beams called? Spars? Yards?_

|| Don't apologize, just try not to act so much like your weirdo self around people. It's embarrassing. ||

"I try my best, but you know how it is." he tested the rotten sail with a pull after his feet were planted. It let out a dusty groan. I was apprehensive to let him use it as a rope, but there wasn't really another way.

|| Oh, do I. Is the wood too dilapidated on the other side? ||

"Yeah. I'd probably just sink through." he began to rappel. "And, just to make it clear- you are just as weird as I am. The only difference is that you can hide it."

I shrugged. || Maybe. ||

"You may not want to believe it, but under your cool-as-ice exterior is an excitable hatchling who peeked out when you decided to have some dragon-nip and try dancing during a _very_ big annual Viking celebration."

|| Alright, alright! || I stopped him. I was still embarrassed by that. || Why do you always have to bring that up? ||

"Because I had my bed stolen from me that night and I had to take care of your hangover and vomit all the next day. But it wasn't that bad. You made that night worth all the trouble."

|| Yeah, that's what I heard. || I cringed at the thought of dragon-nip. _Never again._ || Do you need help? ||

"No, I think I got it," he said as he slid down another foot. I heard another deep and low creak falling from the beams high above us, but it was much louder this time. Faint snapping sounds began to poke through the groans.

It was a startling sound. We both knew it wasn't the kind we wanted to be hearing at the moment. Hiccup let out a, "Whoa!" and looked up, but, for some reason, his eyes didn't travel all the way up from where the noise was coming from. He froze, staring through the railing, too high for me to see what he was looking at. I didn't understand.

A huge wave wracked the other side of the boat, crashing around it much farther up the beach than usual. It was like the other half of the ship had just docked to be reunited with its long lost self. The beam creaked again, cracking and complaining. Hiccup was still.

|| Hiccup, stop sitting there and get down. You need to get down _now_, Hiccup, || I ushered him, anxious. He just sat there, rappelling against the ship. I was a little irritated he brought up the Viking party before, and I plotted to give his face a big, sloppy lick in revenge when he got down, but I had already forgotten. || Hiccup! || I snapped when he didn't respond.

"Oh, man." he suddenly whispered, promptly followed by a sudden clap of waves against wood and the snap of the beam above.

The sail was tired of waiting and collapsed. Hiccup, still holding on uselessly to the sail, began to plummet from more than ten feet. I reared up and used the hull of the ship to spring up and catch him in the air. To cue our sloppy roll in the sound was a furious roar on the other side of the ship from a dragon I didn't recognize. I lurched up as quickly as I could; however, the boy was a step ahead. He slid out from under me and screamed _get down_ as he lunged for the cover of the boat. I instinctively stuck close to protect him from whatever it was, making the right decision for my own skin when I barely missed the unfathomably scalding water that slammed against the foundation and spilled over the side above us. It arced over us and landed in the sand a few feet away; we were fairly safe from it under the hull.

I instantaneously dived on Hiccup when I noticed the straying droplets that struck my scales curled into the air as steam, sizzling viciously against whatever surface it joined. It was only a sting to me, but I couldn't let any come near Hiccup, knowing it could be enough to melt the skin right from his flesh. He let out a panicked sound. I hoped it wasn't pain and squeezed him tighter in my wings.

I smelt it now, and I couldn't believe I didn't notice it before: the burnt salt, the slimy fishy stench of a thing long spent under water, fungus and more disgusting particles attracted to its obviously unkempt scummy scales. A scent that reminded me more of eel than anything, but kept a more distinct scent that all dragons shared. He must have wandered over when Hiccup was rappelling and they spotted each other. I mentally slapped myself for not paying attention and grabbing Hiccup when I sensed the unknown dragon. After it all, this was what was happening and it was too late for us to cut and run. I took solace in the reality that I was here, rather than what would have happened if Hiccup had climbed down the other side.

Hiccup yelled from under me, "Scauldron!". Under all the muck and salt the dragon wore, I could tell that it certainly was. Also, it wasn't much of a brain-teaser thanks to the boiling water that was still pouring over us like a geyser.

As soon as the influx ended, I pulled Hiccup up and pushed him towards the treeline. || Go! Hide! ||

"Wait, no! We don't need to-!"

|| _Now! _||

I turned and watch as the water dragon crushed the decaying boat with an anticlimactic splintering snap, more so a soggy slap. The wood was wet and ready to go, surrendering gladly to the weight of the big dragon that jumped on top of it. He was big for a Scauldron, and he was frothing with rage. I hoped Hiccup was running, but, of course, he wasn't. Why would he be, when he has been faced with so many similar dragons of the same angry nature and was able to work his charm to calm them?

|| _Get out of my way, Dark One. That human is mine_. || He hissed, not looking at me, but at the one he demanded right behind me.

What Hiccup didn't recognize- couldn't- was that this Scauldron was a man-eater. To me, it was a very distinct scent, but Hiccup wasn't able to detect it. I failed to remember that later. The Scauldron stared at him with pure despise and disgust and hunger.

|| Slurp some eels, sea-serpent. You will not touch him. || I growled viciously and did my best to keep the human out of sight without tearing my eyes away from the other. He didn't shift an inch or even seemed to hear me through what he had already decided. I doubted a fight could be avoided. Hiccup would be upset if I fought, but I wouldn't let him get hurt.

|| That pathetic _worm_ tried to impale me, and I will tear him to pieces. || He spat the way he said "worm", laced with venom. He still hadn't even glanced at me. He was totally uninterested and kept his eyes trained intensely on my human. I fidgeted in anger.

"No, no! I didn't mean to-" Hiccup came up to my side to plead. The Scauldron made a move that intended to bring hurt.

I struck him with a plasma-bolt in the side of his droopy head, and he went down.

I spun around to Hiccup and tossed him by his pants up the beach. || _**RUN! **_|| I screamed at him. The dragon was already back up, the left side of his face disfigured from the blast.

Hiccup was a pacifist at heart. He would have done everything he could to settle things peacefully, but the dragon's head was seething with anger and vengeance and many inaccurate presumptions that couldn't be moved. I could smell it all on him. He wouldn't have hesitated to eat him, whatever diplomacy he offered. Hiccup hadn't encountered this side of the race much yet. Of course he understood that they were all individuals with their own beliefs, and some saw every human as _scum, _still, he would have done anything. Any approach of his with this dragon would only result in him walking right into his searing water.

The Scauldron was big and sluggish, and old, I realized, after his scales almost peeled off under my swipes. I was mauling him, the exchange very one-sided excluding a few scratches and burns. He tried many times to suck up more water, but I was always there to stomp on his lanky throat and interrupt him. We fought on the shore, water flying and tails lashing. Barely a minute in, and it was obvious that I was winning and the sea dragon had no chance. The old, male Scauldron was staggering and wide-eyed, seemingly surprised at his lack in ability. He must have been an excellent fighter in his olden days, but he was losing it with the passing of time. I wasn't enjoying how enjoying how unfair it was, but he had forced my paw.

He was about to cut loose into the water and escape; reeling back. I, with a drop of blood flowing into my eye, thought I saw a brief opportunity to figure where Hiccup was. I hadn't heard anything, and I couldn't been certain he wasn't hit. I hopped back, turning my back, one eye blind, looking into the trees and the mountain behind it. This was my first mistake.

I quickly looked back and tried to spy a healthy Hiccup in the woods. I couldn't find him. I told myself I would have to wait until the Scauldron was taken care of, and turned back. When I did, the dragon had seemed to glide through his element in the water and appeared right next to me. I couldn't react to the paw that came down full force into my side. I spun right into it and felt the four claws slide through my scales and into my flesh, and then I was flying through the air.

My back crashed into the bottom of one of the pillars in the water first, and then I hit the floor. The rock jerked from its foundation, and began toppling down on me. I tried to regain myself, but I lost my head and didn't have the sense to jump free of its absolute crushing demise. I jumped to my feet, just to find the floor once again.

My foreleg was immediately caught under its fall and I was pinned between the astounding weight and the jagged basin. I screeched in pain and surprise. It felt broken. It was such a blinding flash of agony that I couldn't tell. I tried with all my might to pull my leg out, but it didn't so much as budge.

My small mistake turned the battle in the other dragon's favor. I wasn't able to maneuver myself well enough to aim a blast at him as the dragon approached. I was helpless, struggling and pushing against the rock that wouldn't give, and I would have died if, as he was bracing to blast a downpour of Hel water into my eye sockets, a rock didn't bounce off his charred face.

The dragon's deep gurgling stopped. He snapped his head to the right, bristling, and roared. Looking beyond the rocks I could only see Hiccup's head, and then it was gone. The Scauldron lost sight of me in his roar of hatred and total blood lust. And then I was alone.

It was the fresh unadulterated terror that gave me the strength to finally push off the boulder and chase after the male. _I was a second too long, _I panicked. _A second too late. You will not touch him._

I followed his tracks and broken tree trunks up the incline and found the Scauldron quite quickly. He was sitting crouched and still, his tail lashing and snapping branches behind him. My heart seemed to rise in my throat and shrivel and explode all at the same time, fueling the screech of rage and fear that stripped my vocal cords for days. He jumped and jerked his head back, immediately flying away before I could reach him.

Hiccup was gone, nor did the dragon have him. There was no flesh and blood I could see on his claws as the dragon flew into the sky. I stopped in the place from where he was staring before he lifted off. On the edge, I looked down into the big river that raged at the bottom of the abrupt twenty feet drop. The living, rapid water that cascaded down the mountain side, cold and white.

Many images swept me away in terror. I saw a Hiccup in my head that jumped off to escape the dragon, smacking against the water and going unconscious. A Hiccup pulled under the waves unable to come up for air. A Hiccup hitting a rock hidden right under the surface and splitting his head open like a melon. And then I saw the true Hiccup, farther down the stream struggling to stay afloat, the one who couldn't swim. I didn't think or feel anything as the water was suddenly sweeping me away as well.

I found him farther down the river and dragged him onto shore. I have never been that angry with my human, neither have I been so terrified for him. He had deliberately jumped into the water, to escape certain death, but he had plunged straight into another. If I had found him seconds later, deep under, he would have inhaled the rapids into his frail chest and become unconscious, and at that point, I couldn't have done anything to help him. I would have stood over him moaning and trying pathetically to shake him awake so he could cough it up, because I couldn't force him to do it without crushing his body or over-inflating his lungs with my own. If I had pulled Hiccup up after he drowned, the only thing I could have done was watch as the he turned purple, deprived of air, and the life escaped his eyes. I grew nauseous at the image and pushed it out from my mind, instead absorbing the real, healthy Hiccup on the floor below me.

|| Hey, look at me! || I panicked, || Look at me! Are you okay? ||

He coughed painfully in response.

I couldn't go on without him, I knew that. I couldn't keep going without him next to me; my entire being was shot at the thought, and then my chest would shrink into a coldness, becoming heavy inside me if I pondered on it too long. I couldn't fathom the concept of him suddenly gone, and I blamed myself for it almost tearing my life apart. I vowed to never let harm find him, and I failed. I hadn't protected him like I should. He almost died and it was my fault. I'd lose myself before I lost him.

I was trembling with anger and humiliation and shock and relief. More than anything, I was _scared_, and it fueled my petrified frenzy. He made it so hard for me to keep him safe, and I needed that. Why didn't he understand that? I just wanted him to be okay!

|| You idiot boy! What the _Hel_ were you thinking?! || I roared.

He coughed before he spoke. Fury rattled my skull, and in my overstrung heart, an incomprehensibly alleviating reminder told me my world was still intact. That everything was okay, and he was alive. I was conflicted between wanting to bite his head off and hug him for three hours straight. Either would probably kill him, but I was so relieved to have him in front of me.

_He's breathing. He's breathing. Gods, it was so close._

"He was gonna." Cough. _Inhale_. Cough. _Inhale_. "Kill you." Choke. "Couldn't walk away!"

My narrowly eluded death was sticking to my scales, a sour smell, but it wasn't apparent at the time. A rock was all that saved me, and I should have been amazed I was still standing, however, my mind was overwhelmed with how Hiccup had put himself in danger and I almost lost the only thing that mattered to me. Gratitude didn't even register as an option. He was my best friend, and I couldn't let him do that again.

|| That's exactly what I told you to do! I told you to _RUN_! Everything would have been fine if you would have just listened to me! ||

"What? He was about to kill you!" he struggled to catch his breath and yell back.

My words were virtually empty and meaningless, bereft of foundation; speaking in tongues and an out-pour of emotion and energy. I didn't feel them go out or what came back at me.

|| Don't _ever_ try to step in between my fights. If you think you can hold your own, you must be pretty gods damned stupid. ||

Hiccup was startled from the raw resent that in my voice; and it was aimed at him. "Stupid!? So, what, Toothless, I didn't do anything over there?"

|| You almost got yourself killed. ||

"I saved your life! What is the matter with you?" He shouted as he stood up.

|| _The only reason we were here in the first place, was because _you_ insisted! _||

"That isn't fair, Toothless! I didn't come here so you could start pointless fights!"

|| I TOLD YOU NOT TO CLIMB ON THAT BOAT, AND YOU DID, AND _HE_ SAW YOU. _YOU NEVER LISTEN_. ||

"_Why did you fight him? That wasn't necessary!_"

|| He was a man-eater, Hiccup! _A. Man. Eater!_ ||

"Ah- A what?" he asked, genuinely stumped. I ignored it.

|| What did you think you could do? Talk to him or pet him like you do so well and all would end well for everyone?! Was that your master plan? ||

"No! You didn't-"

|| Shut up, || I cut him off and began to walk back to the beach. || I don't want to hear it. Get your stuff, we are leaving. ||

"I guess we are pretty disappointed in each other then, huh?!" He shouted. He absolutely hated it when people discounted him, ignoring what he had to say. I knew that. Maybe that was why I turned my back on him.

I was standing on the edge the whole time, but after that, it was nonexistent. I was bathing in a raging inferno. I couldn't stop the hollow words that left me.

I spun around dangerously. || Why should _you_ be disappointed in _me_?! ||

"I didn't know you were such a jerk, Toothless!" he yelled at me. He may have had a near death experience, but what I was saying to him seemed to scare him more. He was shaken and cloudy-eyed. Shaken by the freezing water on his skin and the attack from his best friend. Cloudy-eyed with death and hurt.

I was staring right into his face in less than a second, roaring at him like I never had before, || YOU WANT TO HEAR MY DAILY DISAPPOINTMENT? I HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE REALITY THAT I BONDED WITH SUCH A RECKLESS, ENCUMBERING IDIOT. THAT'S DISAPPOINTING.||

His eyes widened, and corner of his right eye glinted as the rays of the sunset found him through the leaves. He was taken aback by that. His physique immediately shifted; almost deflated. I slipped slightly out of my trance to realize I had gone too far, but I didn't understand it immediately. My pride refused me cognition or any sort of apology to him.

The pain was so deeply apparent in his face during the last second we held eye contact. He wasn't breathing. I had knocked the breath from him without touching him, but I hit him with a blow that made him ache. And after his head fell and his gaze became lost in itself, he barely whispered, "I'm sure it is, Toothless," and he walked around me back to the beach. I followed a few paces behind him. The tremors didn't totally leave until we started flying back to Berk, a tense silence suffocating us the whole way. My leg began pulsing with a excruciating ache, but I didn't give it mind.

I slowly became worried I was too harsh. If I had just understood any of the things I said, I would have been sitting him down and begging him not to hate me.

My foggy mind was now completely clear as Hiccup routinely stripped me of my saddle, and I was putting together what happened and what I did in my head. This time, Hiccup did it without looking at me. He kept his face hidden, facing the other direction and studying the floor. I couldn't get a glimpse until he came to my chest, and I noticed his eyes were very glazed over, threatening to give way. I already felt sick, then; when we made eye contact, I suddenly wanted to vomit. The things I had already said to him started to echo in my head, and I was hearing them for the first time. It was too much, I lost it. None of it was true, but in that brief moment, I could see he believed it all.

Only a moment later he pulled off my saddle and heaved it over his shoulder, walking home without uttering a word. He didn't look back.

The realization blasted me as I watched his small frame disappear behind a shed, and I couldn't immediately force myself to follow him. My legs became as heavy as stones and my heart stopped cold. I peered from the dark, motionless, empty square of the village, and I was aware of everything.

I had called him a burden.

|| Hiccup, wait! || I tried to stop him.

He wretched away, crying now. "Stop! Get away! And you know what?" he choked, "I'm glad to finally hear the truth from you! I used to think I couldn't have friends- that nobody would ever like me! And I guess I was right! It's just all the hero stuff that people see now, but I'm still the same Hiccup everyone hated. _Hiccup the Useless,_ do you remember that? I told you all about it when we were first friends, or _whatever_ you want to call it!"

|| That isn't true, Hiccup! We _are_ friends. You are my best friend! ||

"Don't come home, Toothless." He cried freely, and walked to his house on the hill.

|| Hiccup, don't, please! || I moaned.

It was cold, dark, and still, and I watched him without words, sinking into the biggest regret I had ever felt.

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><p>AN: Yup. Angst is fun. I really enjoyed writing this between Hiccup and Toothless because I'm a D-bag and it was a definite first. Stick around to see if/how they make it up to each other!

Hope you liked it! Leave a review! I hope you spam me with feedback when I'm bored in class.


	3. Chapter 3: A Cove Story

A/N: I'll be honest and tell you that I don't even how long it's been, but here it is! The final chapter! I hope y'all like it.

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><p>|| <em>Hiccup<em>! ||

I barely noticed the dock glide under me as three legs and a half were set on a course I couldn't stop. My veins worked cold with the odd numbness I had only felt a number of times in my life, but knew too well when it came, like an enemy I fought to keep away but could never escape, and it consumed me with its indomitable intensity. I didn't bother to think; it was like my mind couldn't even fathom the concept. I couldn't explain how I felt, but it governed me. My head was spinning with fear, my injured leg aching with every impact, cold blood banging through me, and my immense protectiveness over Hiccup that irked him in so many instances trembled across my eyes, searching the ocean desperately for what it needed but was terrified to find.

I saw the image of Hiccup drowning and it turned my heart into a ice chamber, hanging on the brink of caving in on itself. I already convinced myself he had fallen in in the brief moments I had to wonder about it, and therefore, if I didn't act now, I would be too late to save him. With that, as I looked on from the sandy beach, my body pitched into overdrive. The sudden dread and desperation that gripped my mind probably made me look like a mad-dragon on the surface. A sight to see if anybody was at the ring, watching as the great Night Fury screamed and plunged into the ocean for no obvious reason. The story of the month they could take home to their friends and twist around for entertainment value_. A lunatic dragon who finally cracked and took off from where he stood, running and thinking too fast, or not thinking at all, on a empty dock with no concern to how far it went, crying out for a person that couldn't be seen or wasn't there, ready to plunge into the water and search the infinite depths if they didn't answer back. A tragic, emotional story about a psycho, useless reptile who literally goes off the deep end, chasing ghosts._

However, it's obvious that that mangled story played out a little differently then what really happened. In reality, I'm certain I looked insane, and I might have _felt_ insane, but I was just frightened. It was an instance where strong rational fear made me irrational. That plus a lot of things, including a healthy dose of emotional exhaustion to get that delirium rolling I suppose.

I knew it for a fact. The boy's scent was too fresh and undeniable on the salt air. Hiccup was either here, or just barely left. But, the only way off the tiny beach was up the small trail on which I came down. If he just left, we would have run into each other, and I hadn't seen anything of him.

That was until I spotted Hiccup's prosthetic, which now looked to me as the last nail in his presumed coffin. A beacon in the dark, beckoning me to believe the worst, the prosthetic stood a leg high, gracefully straight, stuck between the boards and lacking a teenage boy. It left a valid reason to panic, unfortunately. He didn't have a spare, and I couldn't imagine him leaving it behind and going anywhere without it. The human needed two legs and I wasn't going to assume he crawled home without it or that he inexplicitly and miraculously vanished on the step he was in the process of making. He wasn't far from where he left it, and it terrified me because he wasn't here on the dock or the beach, and at the moment, that could only mean one thing to me.

I almost did jump in the water to look for him. My hind legs were braced, and I was prepared to leap over the empty beacon and dive in, to find him in the deep, dark cold to pull him to shore whether I was too late or not, but then, to my absolute bewilderment, something I couldn't fathom in the short two seconds I had to make sense of it stopped me immediately. A yard from the pier, a prosthetic inches from my face and a mind set to swim, a not quite built, not quite Viking, and not quite happy human was suddenly directly in front of me, shooting up from past the end of the dock and turning around apparently on water with a face of alarm. I matched it myself before I remembered that there was a short set of steps at the end of the dock. It went down to another small platform almost level with the water, and it was very well hidden from the correct angle at the beach, and I had totally forgotten about it. I scolded myself (I had once even jokingly commented that no one may even know it was here because it was so hidden), but at the point I was too late. I was going too fast to stop, so the rabid black mess that was myself tumbled into the human, and as we went down together, I had time to think about how embarrassingly idiotic and melodramatic I was.

"Wha-_AH_!"

The boy hit the dock with a thunk and I toppled over him. Due to luck only did I not land on him and crush him with my bigger body. I tumbled down and caught myself with an agonized yelp as my whole back-end slipped into the freezing water. My whole foreleg screamed in pain as I desperately tried to pull myself up.

"_Ah_, ow. _Gods_, _Toothless_, what in Odin's name are you thinking?!"

To my pleasant surprise, it was the boy I was looking for that I crashed right into, and better yet, he was completely fine, excluding anything I may have just inflicted. He shot a fiery glare at me as he sat up and rubbed his aching head.

|| Hiccup. || I half-grunted-half-whimpered as I finally clawed my way back up. I was about to jump on him and freely lick his face to what I found adequate, but I restrained myself when I remembered what happened, and how I wasn't in the best shape to be do that sort of thing. I cringed and balled my paw into my chest.

"It sure is!" he exclaimed bitterly, "Were you expecting to crash into someone else? Or was that-" I could see how he was about to launch into a justified exasperation, and I was prepared to wait patiently, but as soon as he brought his angry face up, he caught sight of my leg, and his expression instantaneously fell. "Oh, gods. Toothless, y-your leg! Buddy, you're bleeding! A lot! What..."

During my sprint, the moment Hiccup perked up and I tried to stop, I dug my forelegs into the wood, accidentally allowing a cracked claw that only dangled from my paw at this point to slip into a opening and snag on a splinter. It swiftly tore away as I went back-over-front. Now, I was bleeding once again, more profusely this time, and the pain was unbelievably immense. It was always surprising to me when I lost a claw, how such a small thing hurt so much, now stacked on how I just unconsciously abused my leg in a mothering-dragoness-like hysteric. It was irredeemably embarrassing. I hoped nobody saw it.

|| I know, Hiccup, calm down. I'm fine. It's okay. Stop panicking. || I hissed out, doing a horrible job at reassuring him. He practically gaped at the blood, like I was spouting it out, but it really wasn't that bad. I figured that he couldn't see very well in the dark with his lousy human vision, and his mind was filling in the blanks.

He didn't believe me at all. "Wh- what happened?!" he struggled to stand up, using the beam for support. He was too alarmed to be sitting down.

I was immediately anxious. || It's nothing serious. Just settle down and sit. ||

"Toothless, you didn't answer my question! What happened to you? Was that... yesterday?"

|| N-no! Well, yes! It's- this just happened. Listen, you need to- ||

"That just happened?!" he shouted, and it tremored through his whole body, making him almost slip off the pole.

I jumped forward. || Hiccup, you are going to fall! Sit down! || I demanded.

He ignored me, questioning further, "What do you mean that just happened? Did someone do this to you? Were you running from them? What the Hel is happening?"

I suppose that hysterical thing goes both ways.

|| _No_, _nothing is happening_, _Hiccup_. Listen, stop with random postulations and arm flailing unless you are planning to go for a dip and make me save you. ||

He snapped at that, "For Odin's sake, Toothless, can you stop for _one second _and worry about yourself!" Hiccup yelled, jabbing an furious arm at me, resulting in him falling forward, and me being conditioned by his natural habit of clumsiness, instinctively caught him before he hit the floor, but he pushed me away and went down anyway. His face now red with humiliation, he grew even more furious. "_You_ are the one that's hurt! I'm fine!" he jerked away, "I am not-"

After a found himself back-against-boards and craning his head up at me to glower, he must have seen the stunned on startled expression on my face and realized how unlike himself he was acting. He took a deep breath and huffed the rest of the frustration away with a small growl through his gritted teeth, and the sudden rage that came over him washed out almost as quickly as it flared up. He sat up.

"Just... don't. Alright?" He muttered quietly more as a statement than anything. It made my stomach curl in a way I couldn't describe.

I was rattled. I only blinked at him dumbly a few times before I could collect myself.

|| You're right. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying t- ...That was mean. || I said. Neither of us could make eye contact because of the shame we both felt.

I bent down after a silence and apprehensively nudged his shoulder with a soft smile, gravely expecting he would push me away again or stare at me blankly. Hiccup never really snapped at me and I was thrown off, expecting more, scared. However, instead, he attempted a smile up at me, and even though it was pathetically weak, and I returned it gratefully.

|| There is nothing going on, I promise. || I said softly, || I will explain everything, but you should properly sit first. Please? ||

His face softened, and he sighed with a nod. I attempted to help him but he waved me off and grunted softly, "I got it." He didn't seem bitter at all in the way he did it, but I couldn't shake the broken feeling pitted in my chest.

He plopped down on the second step and I settled down down in front of him, allowing him to get a clear look at my leg when he asked.

"Odin's Beard..." he breathed out in a shocked gasp, tenderly tracing all the small gashes and jagged scales, making sure not to put to much pressure on any area or twist it too far while getting a better look. "I can't believe I didn't see this yesterday."

|| It's understandable, don't feel bad. I do not think it is near as bad as you thought it was. It's just some cuts and shattered scales, don't worry. It will be healed over in a few weeks. ||

"I think it's a little more noteworthy than you make it sound, but... I guess you are right. It isn't as bad as I thought." Contrary to what he admitted, he wasn't any less concerned. "The bleeding stopped, but, well, are you sure this isn't serious? This still looks pretty severe. How do you feel?"

|| Fine. || I lied, || It's nothing but a bum leg, I promise. Nothing compared to your leg, at least. || I tried to joke, but groaned. || That was mean again. ||

He rolled his eyes and smirked, "Oh, it's _mean_ now, huh, but not the past two years you've teased me about it? Settle down, you know I don't mind. You didn't even give me a chance to laugh."

|| I'd imagine that's the exact thing you would say to someone who told you a bad joke. ||

A shrug. "Well, if you want to make me laugh, just be yourself. You know how to get to me."

I did, unintentionally more often than not. Hiccup had something like a _dumb_ sense of humor, and I'd find him laughing at something I said for the silliest reasons, and it was great. We ended up laughing a a lot, just the two of us as everyone else squinted in confusion, because as we spent more time together, I accidently adapted his terrible not-humor, and we discovered that I was just as good, if not better, at making terrible not-jokes.

But now I was upset, and the childish but clever quips that usually came naturally was lost to me. It wasn't a very appropriate time to joke anyway, so I decided to try not to, and just sighed.

"Are you sure it isn't broken anywhere?" he asked.

|| Yes. ||

I shifted uncomfortably.

|| ...How do _you_ feel? || I finally managed to ask.

"What? Oh. Good. I'm okay." he lied. He was exhausted.

I didn't know what I intended with that question.

Neither of us were really okay and we were well aware. I felt stupid for asking, but did anyway.

"So, what _were_ you doing sprinting down the dock with your leg like this? And were you calling my name?" He broke the brief silence and looked up at me, finding a few more smaller cuts along my shoulder. Claw marks. He glowered at them unhappily.

Even so soon after I had tore him down, he still had a compassion he couldn't stifle. It made me ache.

He didn't ask any more questions about the injury itself. I assumed he put it all together himself.

|| I, uh... || I struggled to find a way to explain it in a way that made it sound less ridiculous than it was. I gave up when there was no way around it. || It's embarrassing. || I grumbled.

Of course, that answer utterly confused him. "What?"

I straightened up to compose myself, like if I looked more graceful, I could save some dignity. || Astrid told me you were down here, and I came to find you. When I got here, I... couldn't see you. I knew you couldn't have been anywhere else, but I forgot about this other landing, so I thought something happened. I saw just your leg stuck in the boards and the boxes spilled in the water, and... I jumped to conclusions, || I told him. || It was stupid. ||

He raised a brow at me, the ghost of a sarcastic smile on his face. "You were going to jump in the water and find me because you thought I fell in," he stated.

I frowned. || Yes. I am well aware of how idiotic it is. It's been a long day. ||

He shook his head and went back to examining my paw. "Is that what happened to your claw?"

I gestured past him. || You can probably find it back there stuck between the boards. You can use it to make a necklace or something if you want. I know you humans like to do that sort of thing, despite how disgusting it is. ||

It seemed that jesting was a fall-back when I was nervous. I couldn't stop myself, but I was more successful this time. He snorted. "I'm good for now, thank you for the offer though. If I ever _do _get any ideas for a cool necklace, I'll just come find you and we can take a few off. You got plenty."

I shivered slightly. || It does not feel as pleasant as you think. ||

"I know. I'm sorry."

|| It's not your fault. ||

He held my leg for a few more seconds before letting go. "You know what saltwater feels like in a wound, right?"

|| Oh, shut up. || I groaned and playfully shoved him as I turned around to look at the dark ocean. He laughed heartily, no doubt savoring teasing me for a change. || Why don't you stop getting your leg stuck in the dock. ||

"_This is only the second time_! And the thing hates me, I swear." He threw back a glance and bit his bottom lip in contempt.

|| Were you planning to sit here all night? Why didn't you at least call out? ||

"Eh," he shrugged, "I don't know. It was a gorgeous sunset, so I didn't really mind getting stuck here. I thought maybe the world was _demanding I appreciate _it or something weird like that. And then, before I knew it, the sun had been down for a while, and it was all gone." He sighed pleasantly. "This is nice too."

I nodded slowly, wholly agreeing. Nights like this were much more beautiful than any sunset.

For the moment, things between us felt good. It felt normal, and I basked in it for as long as I could. As soon as the silence settled in again, heavy in its presence, we had time to remember once more, and the faint smile was gone and the crushing tension returned.

I wanted to just get it over with and destroy the wall between us, to look straight in his eyes and take back every single thing, stomp on every seed of doubt I may have planted in his heart, apologize, and then take him for a flight. We were running out of things to say and it was becoming too long. I _needed_ for it to end and wanted to turn to face him and wondered why I didn't and then almost just did, but, something was stopped me. I wasn't sure what or why. It wasn't content with what I intended. It told me it wasn't enough. I was missing something, and without it, my apology was hollow and weak. Meaningless. I really screwed up, and a simple "sorry" was less than what Hiccup deserved. I wanted to ignore it, but I couldn't. It was right.

_Am I over-thinking this? Yes, I think I am._

_You are scared, and you need to pull yourself together, for him. He's in the dark, not knowing what to think. Do not do that to him. Just go. You are a Dark One, the most reputed of the dragon species, faster than lightning and able to take more hits than a mountain (almost as many), and you are an asshole. Fix it, and do it right._

I sucked in a deep breathe and turned, ready. || H- ||

Hiccup still had my injury dominating every thought in his head, and he cut through the nighttime waterfront chill to speak up about it. Also oblivious to how I was about to speak, "Alright, I can't drop it." he stated, "No matter what, serious or not, some of those cuts you got are pretty deep, and your spit can't do all the work. They need to be cleaned and patched up. I'm serious."

Hearing that last part, the air escaped me via groan instantaneously. || Hiccup... ||

He was expecting that and quick to persist. "Toothless, I know you think you keep your injuries perfectly sterile, and I know this isn't really the best time to be forcing things on you when we just... got in a fight. But this isn't a game, and it's just open to everything for Odin's sake! If we leave that way it could easily get infected whether or not you lick it all the time, and if it _does_ get infected, there's not much we can do but cut it off. That isn't the funnest thing to ever happen, let me tell you."

|| I understand, Hiccup, but I promise you it isn't necessary. We can wrap it, but no alcohol. ||

"It's only to make sure. It won't hurt to make _sure_, Toothless."

I had let him attempt to disinfect a dirty scrape on my side once after a nasty crash. I nearly bit him in surprise and pain, and he never asked since.

I frowned and looked away. || That's not true at all in this case. ||

He crossed his arms and thought for a moment. "I'll use less this time. Please?" he begged eventually. He was just being senseless now.

|| You realize that I survived for years on my own before I met you, right? ||

" ...That isn't necessarily true either."

I grunted. || Well, _we_ didn't have wretched smelling concoctions to pour on our wounds. We never needed it. ||

He finally huffed. "Alright, fine, you're right. I don't know why I'm worrying so much. You dragons pull through anything."

I almost sighed from relief and smiled. || No worries. It's touching. || I leaned over him and pulled out his prosthetic with an easy tug, dropping it gently on his lap. He nodded to me in gratitude.

"I can water and bandage it though, right?" he pressed.

|| I'll agree to anything you want as long as it doesn't have liquor involved. ||

Hiccup sat back farther, seemingly content with that. A smirk crept across his face. "Well, you don't hear people 'round here say that often."

I smiled. "Nope."

"Oh, _shit_." Hiccup suddenly groaned.

|| What? ||

"Dang it. I had all our bandages in my backpack, but I don't remember what I did with it. The last time I remember seeing it was yesterday at the beach. I'm pretty certain we brought it back with us, but... we brought it back, right?"

|| Oh... yes, you did. You dropped it last night. It's at the cove. || I shifted awkwardly.

His bag had accidentally unclipped from the saddle last night when he whirled around and told me not to come home. He didn't notice, and I didn't want to leave it in the middle of the village.

"Oh, well, that's good." He sat forward and began putting his leg on. "Um, we should- probably get it. Do you want to?"

The cove. That sounded nice.

|| Yup. || I waited patiently for him to climb the steps.

**##**

Raven's Point was a thirty minute walk at best, so when I suggested we get our gear and fly there, Hiccup couldn't disagree, even if he looked a little surprised when I asked. Hiccup's leg ached, and so did mine, and we were happy to be in the air even if it were only for ten minutes. We limped to his house and I sat out front as he brought it out. It was awkward as he strapped me in, as was the flight there. Neither of us said anything, and Hiccup seemed unusually tense on my shoulders. I picked up the pace.

The cove glowed with the dark blue iridescence of the night, the moon reflecting of the small lake and casting shimmering light waves on the far walls and ourselves, caressing us into that natural comfort that washed over us whenever we came here. It was our place to hang out by ourselves and get away where no one could find us, not even Astrid and Stormfly, and we felt close to it in an inexplicable, incredible way.

Hiccup breathed, "Ah," when we dropped down and he spotted the backpack, next to my cold, charred, sad bed of last night. He quickly hopped off and trotted over to it. It was still pressed firmly to the ground, I noticed, since I had fallen asleep with my head on it, toward the end of the emotional whirlwind that only Hiccup could brew, but he did not and simply picked it up, bringing it over and brushing all the dirt off the underside and then sifting through it, trying to find the bandages. I watched him, inwardly anxious that he really did notice the embarrassing truth, and would ask me about it, despite knowing he would truly never seriously harass me like that.

Hiccup finally found the roll of linen and stripped me of my saddle so he could have easy access to all the cuts around my shoulder and side. He then pulled out his canteen and held it up to my nose as to convince me it wasn't any other kind of wretched disinfecting substance, when we both knew he didn't drink anyway. I smirked and presented my paw for a wash. I knew for a fact it was water, a nice, cool, soothing magic to any cut, but I couldn't help but still flinch when he applied the wet rag just like the way he did last time- when a startling searing pain seeped into scraped side and I wrenched away with a cry. He noticed however and quickly pulled it. I was ashamed of being such a coward, but he didn't make fun of me for it. He whispered, "I won't hurt you. I promise." And I instantly believed him.

I laid down and he sat next to me and silently wiped down my foreleg, being unnecessarily careful with how he handled it. Of course, I thought the whole situation was unnecessary, but I didn't mind or say anything about it. I was letting him clean my wound for him, not for me. He occasionally glanced up at me, and I averted his eyes every time. I tried to focus on anything but the guilt that slashed my insides.

Being back once more, darkness shrouding the forest and depression strangling my thoughts, my mind rooted into this place, digging in deep into everything I could perfectly recall planted beneath. I thought about the cove's story.

Or, in better words, _Our story_. A big, beautiful hole in the ground that served as the setting of a bitter story turned sweet. The foundation of the great first friendship between a dragon and a human, revealing its plot to anyone who was observant by the paintings on the rocks, the remains of many long burning fires, and the forgotten notebooks of a meticulous hand. It was a resting spot of a thousand wonderful memories of our own and hopefully many more to come. It was the end of my old life, and the birth place of the present.

Once upon a time, I stared into this lake, and it meant nothing to me. I only saw the reflection of myself, the one I had always been so proud of, waiting for it to starve and die out. It looked back at me with a pure every one and everything it could lay its devastating stare on, including myself, blaming the watery world for what I had lost, the one thing that was snatched away and in result, took it all from me. It pained me to remember. I peered in, miserable, hungry and desperate for fish, heaving and aching and panicking. Although I had only been there for two days, I hadn't eaten anything. I was convinced I would suffer in the worst ways imaginable, and I accepted it. The cove was a torturous prison with escape just out of reach and death right before. I stared into the dark water, and I saw me in front of myself. The old me- at least two years ago, a younger me with not so many flight-related scars edged into his face and eyes with less depth. It was the Night Fury that had just lost his right tail fin, and he looked like a total stranger to me now. Still, I tried to cheer him up, because I knew better. I knew better than him.

I wasn't sure if he could see me, but I could see him, and he stared straight back. He was broken, lost, and homesick, and I tried to communicate through my eyes to tell him to look through me and see what he has to look forward to, how great it would get.

It was the end of his life as he knew it, however, he would soon find that it turned out to be the start of something better. Soon, he would be faced with something no dragon had ever faced before, and he will have no idea what to do, but he will turn away from every thing he once knew, because he knew more than every one now. In a few long months, he will be changed irreparably and realize that everything he knew was wrong, and he had the opportunity to change things for the better, to spread the truth, even if he wasn't sure how. This is what he will want- what _they_ will want, and he'll look back on all of the things he once taught, the _no's_, _never's_, and _not's_, and then disregard it all. In a steep slope of five months, impossible will be made possible. He will live on, happier than he has ever been, on the other side of a revolution and a forbidden friendship, and he'll be grateful for the loss of his tailfin, because he will grow up and come to understand that there isn't gain without loss, and without a mechanical tailfin, he wouldn't have the most important person in the world on his back. He will find his soul mate, and they will unite dragons and humans together. He will look back, and he will know he can't ask for much more than that.

I looked down through the still, inky water, a moon and stars behind me, and a sun and clouds behind him. He wasn't sad anymore. I wasn't actually sure if he was ever sad. He simply looked in, suddenly squinting his eyes in a devious glare of some sort, right before another person walked right beside him. An equally young Hiccup came up to him and flicked an earfin, saying something with that big, signature, goofy grin, and challenged him with a glare of his own. His eyes glowed with a deep happiness I supposed only I could see, and he whirled around to snarl playfully at the boy. Hiccup tried to run, but before he could even take a step, he tackled him to the ground and out of the lake's view.

I smiled. I remembered that day. It was a good one.

"Earth to Toooothlessss."

I jerked my head back to see the real Hiccup in front of me that was still tending to my leg. I stared at him, startled, recovering from the weird daydream I had fallen into.

|| What? || I managed to blurt.

"Did you hear me?"

|| Uh, no. ||

"Is this too tight? Should I loosen it up?" He gestured to my leg. I saw that he wrapped my leg in bandages and tied it up without me noticing. I wondered how long I had zoned out.

|| Oh, no. That is fine. Thank you. || I looked back at the water. They were gone. It was just me and him, now.

I watched Hiccup's reflection. He was staring at me with bewildered expression. He finally said something, and began to stand up, "Hey," he said, "I think it's about time we-"

I couldn't control myself. It was an impulse. The moment I saw him try to get up, I lurched towards him and pulled him close. I listened to the words as they left my mouth, a spectator in my own skin. || Wait! || I yelled, and then pleaded softly, || Don't. Don't go yet. Please. || I squeezed his arm.

I was just as surprised at my outburst as he was, and I couldn't bring myself to meet his wide eyes. I was embarassed, but, I didn't give it a second thought. He couldn't leave yet. I had so much I needed to tell him.

|| I'm sorry. I- || I let go of him and stumbled over myself, trying to find the words to speak.

Right then, I felt a wall inside myself give way. _It_, I supposed it was. I still couldn't figure what the thing was inside me, but it didn't matter. The barrier shattered and crumbled down, now satisfied with whatever it found and allowed the current of feelings to pass. I glanced at Hiccup, and suddenly, everything came flooding out.

I decided to stop myself before it was impossible. || Okay... I have a lot of things I need to say now, and they need to be said, but, I need you to promise that you will stay and listen to my every word. That you will look at me, and you will listen. || I asked him, || Will you do that? Please? ||

He was utterly bewildered. He stared at me blankly, unable to react, frozen, and then he quickly looked around like he was trying to spot something I may have been hiding from him, like a bucket of guts above his head and a crowd ready to laugh as the prank resolved. The situation was too weird and surreal, but it was real and it was just me and him. He then looked back at me with turbulent eyes, his brain rolling through many thoughts I couldn't hear, and he let out a small breath. The small boy crossed his legs, pulling his metal leg under his flesh one, and looked back. He promised, "Okay."

I nodded after a moment, and with a anxious huff, I began, not really knowing what I was saying or where it would take me, but it didn't matter and I didn't care. I knew what was important to me, and that served as my reckless motive to not think about it too much.

|| Last night, after you left, I kind of fell into a daze. I felt... really bad... i- it was the first time in my life I really felt like that. I don't know how to say it. I don't think I can explain right... I felt hopeless and stuck, and I wanted to do something, but I was sure I couldn't do anything, so I just fell deeper into... || I tried my best to try and articulate what I was feeling at the time, but I couldn't and just began to grow frustrated, so I left it, || I don't know. It doesn't really matter anyway. I didn't feel good. || I settled.

|| I didn't remember any of the walk. I still don't. It was all a blur until I suddenly found myself all the way out here, in the cove. I was laying here with your backpack- numb is the best way to describe it, and I tried to vomit because I thought I needed to but I didn't. Then, I had a weird realization of the exact spot upon which I was lying. || I motioned my head back. Hiccup saw it; maybe he understood what I meant. I wasn't sure. I breathed deeply. || Right there. When we were still working out the kinks in my first tailfin only a few months after we met, that was the spot where you set up a tent and camped out here with me for a couple days. Your dad went on another expedition to try and find Dragon Island, and we were both feeling pretty down, so we decided to take advantage of your short freedom and have you sleep here. It was... really great. Do you remember? || I looked at him.

"...Yes. Of course I do." he said. It was a very happy memory, but he looked grim.

|| I don't know how I managed to come to that, but I did. It made me feel better and worse to look back after what just happened. Those short few days were some of the best of my life, and I remember it with perfect clarity. We flew, we swam, we... well, you know what we did. We were getting really good at flying together. It was probably the first time we coordinated flying together so flawlessly like we do now. || I smiled at him. He forced a smile back.

|| On the second evening, I got really annoyed at you because you kept insisting that I at least try painting when you lugged a few different colorful bowls over from the village. I didn't care and wanted to nap. When you finally talked me into getting up, I got so lost in it I didn't realize you had fallen asleep watching ages ago and I had been painting a picture of myself until sunset. I loved it, and I was convinced that my mess was a beautiful depiction of a Night Fury, so I got very angry and upset when we heard the thunder rolling in and all I could do was watch as the rain washed it down the wall and ruined what paint we had left outside. ||

|| I moaned about it, but you said you'd just bring more and we'd do it again. Things like that happened, and they were great pictures, but it wasn't a big deal. You didn't let it faze you at all, and you cheered me up. ||

He nodded slowly, not knowing how to take this: why I was talking about this, the point I was trying to make. It was anyone's guess, I thought, although I did see a small smile crease his face, and I felt more confident.

|| We talked all night as the rain poured outside the cave. || I motioned to the vine-ridden hole in the wall as well, the one that grew more cramped every day as we grew bigger. I loved to sleep in there, but it was starting to get uncomfortable, and it upset me. || We talked about my old drove and a lot about your life back home. We got really personal. It was very hard for you back then, and you got emotional. You tried to bite back the cry that was coming, and I couldn't understand why you would do that. I never liked it when you did it around me, and I thought you knew that, but I decided to made it clear now. I told you to stop it and to just let it out, it would be okay. I promised you I'd always be here, whenever and whatever you needed, and that you could be truthful with me about anything without worrying that I would think badly of you, because I knew you, and that was why we were friends- _best friends_, and there wasn't anything that you could say or do that would change that, whether you liked it or not. We were family and drove brothers. We were a team, and we would help each other. || I shook my head. || It was cheesy, I know. I'm not good at that sort of thing. You knew that well enough already I suppose, but you understood what I was trying to say. It was the first time I saw you really cry. You broke down and sobbed into my shoulder, and I held you until you fell asleep. ||

I looked up at him. He was staring at the floor and I couldn't read his face. He glanced back up at me and I continued, || After that, I vowed to myself to never let any harm come to you. Three weeks later, Hookfang attacked you in the ring. ||

He gulped and nodded again. His eyes were foggy now. I had the idea that he was mad at himself for it. He hated crying. _Nope, Chieftains lack weakness, Toothless._

I leaned foward and brought my nose under his chin to push it up. When we were eye-to-eye, I bumped my forhead gently against his, and I swore to him. || A lot has changed since then, But, Hiccup, _we have not_. ||

At that, he could no longer maintain eye contact. He sucked in a quick, shallow breath. "Okay," and let out a dry, overwhelmed laugh, trying to stand up, "alrigh-"

|| Hiccup! || I cut him off and moved closer, grabbing his shirt. He stopped, || You can't do that now. Not with me. || I stared at him and went on gently, || This is the part where I really need you to just listen and not say anything. Okay? Just sit, and listen. Please. ||

Hiccup was getting too emotional. He didn't like that. He wanted to run. I begged him not to.

"Okay." He struggled and fought every scream in his head, but agreed anyway. For me, I suppose. I hoped so. He sat back down.

The boy flinched when I made a move. With my wrapped up paw, I slowly and gently grabbed his retracted wrist, and he gave me a confused look.

I was immensely relieved to see him so confused as he watched me the whole way, not knowing what to do or what to think, but still allowed a much bigger, much more dangerous paw to guide his soft, fragile palm, and didn't panic like anyone else would when it ended on his chest, razor sharp claws and lightning fast reflexes almost entirely covering his hand against possibly the most important component of his living existence, a simple flick away from his end if I so desired. He just watched, never resisting or trying to pull away, only laughing nervously and glancing at me. Right then, I felt sure that no matter what would happen, that blind and undeniable trust that went between us would never die. He gave me a weird look, absolutely dazed.

I could feel his small heartbeat, elevated but steady under my contact. I had a strange belief about him. I always imagined his heart steady- even under the most jarring fear and destructive stress, it was always steady, counting every passing second of the most compassionate, strong, and bravest person I had known. A heart that had endured too many dark days and was still too stubborn to give up; determined to wake up to a better day, even if in the end, it was forced to make that initiative. I pressed his hand a little more and wished he could believe in what he held inside him like I did.

|| Hey, look at me. ||

He could overcome anything if he had his heart in it.

He looked up, blurry-eyed.

|| You, Hiccup, you are my rider, and you are _my_ human. || I stated firmly with an intensity that made his eyes go wide. It wasn't intentional, and I wasn't sure if it was a good thing, however, I did not let up. I slowly brought his hand to my chest so he could feel my own irratic pulse; a heartbeat that always mesmerized him. How it _drummed_ compared to his, he had once said, astonished. It was strong and loud, and it grew into a calming, resounding tune to Hiccup's ears, lulling him to sleep countless times. At the moment, it timed perfectly with Hiccup soaring tempo, so he would understand that I was just as worked up as he was. I pressed his palm harder to my scales and puffed out my chest. My paw trembled from the pain.

|| And me: I am your shoulders, and I am _your_ dragon. || I bumped my head against his, || We are companions until the end. I'd put everything I have to offer on that staying true forever, even if I do get scared sometimes. I know I have nothing to worry about if I don't screw things up, because if anything ever does happens, I'm certain it will be my fault. I... complicate things, much more than necessary I suppose.||

|| Under my set of circustances, I am not a ordinary dragon. I am a Night Fury, the best species in my humble opinion, and that's a thing of itself, but, above everything else promblematic is that I lack what every flying reptile requires. I cannot come and go as I please; I cannot embrace the wind under my wings without carrying some extra weight on my back always, and I have occassional aches in my tail. I am broken. Nevertheless, that's not the complicating factor. We suffer from the same things and we help each other through it; the truth is, you much stronger than I am, and you have better ways to cope. I'm afraid sometimes that I will tear apart what I have if you aren't constantly by my side. You help me better than I help myself. || I carefully let go of him.

Hiccup told me long ago that he was the reason that my fin was gone. I didn't hold it against him in the least bit, but I couldn't help that he was still incredibly guilty and would shift uncomfortably when it was brought up. That wasn't what I was trying to do, so I glazed over the subject. I smiled at him again. || Here. Let me you show what I mean. ||

I stood up and laid back down again so Hiccup was at my side, and I curled around him.

|| Intially, I was convinced I was a dead dragon, but, you saw an easy solution. || I swung my tail in front of him, || With your incredible opposable thumbs and that unique "Hiccup" charm I learned to love, you talked me into trying on a new tailfin. || I fanned out the red and white fabric, || You fixed me, and now, all I need is a rider to fly again. Around here, that isn't hard to come by anymore_- another thing you fixed_. Still, only a idiot would assume that picking a companion is anything like a show of volunteers. Riders are not disposable things that you use once and take whoever is free next, and dragons are definitely not horses to be ridden without consent. You will get your head torn off for that. There are only friends who build a pact between themselves, and it is only even considered once it has already happened in most cases, and it is permanent. The point I'm trying to make is: it's a huge, difficult commitment every way you looked at it, and in a situation like ours, it's hardly normal circumstances. ||

Hiccup just shrugged. He knew it was true, but I didn't think he cared. It was worth it, even if things weren't always dandy.

|| I cannot fly on my own, and for that reason only, I am a huge responsibility for a rider. ||

I sighed before continuing.

|| I am very needy. I get restless and agitated even if we skip out on one flying session. I'm grumpy and I snap on people randomly. You, mostly. All the while, I am also much more protective and prideful than many species, and I could be the most bitter and rude person you've met if you dig deep enough. I'm can't even say that I'm ashamed of it. Because of that, I wonder what it's like for you when I'm following you around everywhere you go. I vowed to never target you, but, regardless, you are always caught in the crossfire and you have to deal with my pointless messes. I am your new, reckless shadow. Also, I'm sorry to admit that I'm purposely difficult a lot of the time just to entertain myself, because I've got nothing better to do. Long-story-short, I am a jerk to a rider, and I'm not always a good friend. I'm sorry for that too. I'm working on it. ||

He was about to say something, but I quickly stopped him. I felt bad when he huffed and retreated back. I wished I could stop talking just so I could hug him and rid those cloudy eyes, but I couldn't, not yet anyway. I had to finish.

|| The way things are, I need more than a regular companion. || I went on softly, || I need someone who will always patiently tolerate me, some who will put everything on hold when I need something- even when they'd much rather be seducing their potential mate, and cares about me as much as I care about them, because I also need someone _I _can tolerate. || I stared at him straight in the eyes, || Hiccup, there isn't someone who could be my rider but you, because you are the only person in this world that puts up with me like you do, and I love you too much to let you go. ||

He heard my potential mate remark but let it slide. For now, at least.

|| If you left, I could take anyone else to fill that weight on my back, but I wouldn't. No other human would touch me, because... it isn't a matter of flight that makes you my rider. It's not even a matter of having a rider or not. It's just _you_, Hiccup. You are my best friend and I _need_ _you_, and I would give everything else up if it meant I could keep you. I would give up my flight forever. ||

He tried to scoff but choked on it. He was crying now.

I didn't want him to feel stuck. Like, if he left, I would die. I would let him leave if he really wanted that. Nevertheless, I was telling the truth. I couldn't do it without him anymore.

I felt hysterics grab ahold of me as well. || I didn't mean any of the things I said yesterday. I never could. I was just speaking out of fear, scared for you and for me. I was convinced that I would finally get out from under that rock to be too late, that you would be gone or I would have found you... || I struggled, and then took a deep breath, || I don't know what I would have done. I would have never forgiven myself, and I can't- ||

I was rambling, pulling anxiety inside and casting out the energy with each breath in the form of words. Hiccup grabbed me. I realized I had been hyperventalating.

"Toothless." He put his hand on my shoulder and stopped me with a shaky voice. He understood. I could stop.

I stared at him for a few seconds, and then I groaned, dropping my head. I was exhausted. I didn't want to talk anymore, I wanted it to be over. But that was my job. I gathered myself. || ...When I found you in the river, I lost it. I didn't want you to ever do it again- I don't want you to do it again, and you needed to know that. But, I went too far and I feel terrible for every thing. || I looked back at him, || I'm a huge jerk and none of it was true. You didn't deserve the way I yelled at you. You saved my life, and I am so happy that you are okay. I'm so sorry, Hiccup. Will you please forgive me? ||

He sat still in the cool grass, staring at me, and I watched his eyes glint brightly in the moonlight and he blink harshly, trying to get the bright spots out of his eyes. A tear began to roll down the trail of another across his flushed cheek and off his freckled chin. I was sure he meant to say something, but instead, he made a sound I could only describe as something like a happy laugh before it devolved into a gasp. He tried to keep himself together, to make words and respond, but he couldn't and settled on just lunging into my side and wrapping his arms around my neck, not that I had anything to complain about. "You could have just said sorry, you know." The human sniffed after a moment. My favorite human.

I rumbled and carefully stood up before lifting him up in a hug of my own, another croon I couldn't help escaping me as I did. I couldn't even begin to give a damn. I huffed into his hair and gently squeezed him, squishing my head into his and nuzzling his neck. || You are not a burden, Hiccup, not to anyone. We all need you, especially me. || I swore to him.

He pushed his face harder into my neck. I felt his head move up and down. A nod.

|| Okay? || I pressed.

"...Okay, bud." he breathed out.

I sat on my rump, holding Hiccup in a tight embrace suspended feet above the ground, and he tried his best to return it when he was so small in comparison. We stayed like that for awhile, waiting for both of us to calm down, making no idications that we would ever let go. I had to restrain myself from crushing him out of pure joy.

"If I had known we were preparing speeches, I would have made one." he said against me after a minute, "Sorry. I feel kinda unprepared now."

|| I didn't expect you to. It's not like you have anything to apologize for. ||

"Well, let's not say that, I mean... I did think it was a good idea to jump into the raging river when I couldn't swim..."

|| And it saved your life, so I think it was. ||

After a few moments, Hiccup eventually let go and stepped back, and settled myself as well as he wiped his tears away and began talking again, finally sounding more like himself than the little I heard from him all day. It made me very happy.

"Did you- did you plan all this?" he asked with a stunned grin, "Like, did you rehearse all that before you came to me?"

I shook my head. I couldn't help smiling.

"Well, it may have been overkill, and maybe a little too sappy, but I'm very impressed. It was amazing, bud. Thank you." I just shrugged. He wasn't going to admit it upfront. He loved it.

"You still just could have said sorry. I would have understood."

|| No, you deserved more than that, and even I like to get sappy sometimes. Don't deny you loved it. || I playfully nudged him.

"Alright, that's enough!" he did that particular post-cry laugh and pushed me away, and then let out a sigh that sounded like he had holding for ages. "I just want to fly. You feel up to it?" He asked with a pathetic punch to my good shoulder.

I trembled simply at the word. || Always. || I said, and right before I bent down to do let him jump on, I landed a big, slobbery lick right down the side of his face.

He groaned, but didn't any waste time. In only a second, we were high in the air, surfing the night clouds and yelling in ecstasy, together again after what felt like a lifetime, happy.

**##**

The sliver of what could be seen of the moon moved beyond the top of the frame and out of the window's view, all the stars and colorful splashes of the obsidian overlay of the night sky moving with it like it was part of one rotating sheet. The moon pulled its ghostly light out of sight, dragging more glittering dots and blackness behind it, everything stuck fast in their place but moving all together ever so slowly if you watched closely, always the same exact image with only a few exceptions like the occasional streak of lights slicing along the dark- shooting stars. Trying to understand what the sky really was seemed impossible, but I imagined it was just a stationary slapped tightly against the inside of a sphere we happened to reside in, the sphere slowly but surely spinning around us endlessly and in result taking the days and nights as we knew it, slightly different in every day- everchanging shades of blue and unknowable sunsets, but the nights always the same. The same black sheet poked with those particular holes we called stars, speared with whatever extraordinary light that was on the other side. The sun being a huge tear, and the moon... you had to be more creative with, I guess. It looked like a peephole, and a speckled, glowing eye looking down on us, one of a giant being that cared for or despised the creatures that were on the planet suspended in the sphere, staring with an unreadable intensity, but never able to reach us.

Many humans and dragons had conflicting views about what was beyond the wallpaper of the sky, where the blinding light and possibly the onlooker of the other side came from. Whether it was the land of the afterlife or a bottomless void or really anything difficult to wrap your head around, I couldn't ever satisfy myself with a solid answer, or a belief. Some people were certain they knew the truth and held the explanation for reality itself, but for me, I wasn't sure, and I never gave it too much thought. People say a lot of things, but no one knew anything, frankly, and I didn't feel compelled to pick a side because I didn't care. Ultimately, I was down here on the ground, and I had my life to worry about. I only thought about the things that were in front of me, like rocks and trees and the futures of our students. If, in the end, that mentality was the death and the infinite suffering of me, I really hoped not. Still, I didn't beg for forgiveness. I was busy.

I glanced up, wondering why it had gotten so suddenly dark, and I realized the moon's light was gone. I grunted in frustration and carefully scooted Hiccup's sketchbooks from under the frame and more into the candlelight, then settled back down.

I had never seen anything like it before I met Hiccup. At least, not in as good a fashion as when Hiccup put his charcoal stick to paper. It actually looked like something he was drying to draw rather than the undisernable scribbles of dragons when they gravely attempted (anything past a circle and we were finished). When Hiccup first flipped through his notebook to show me what was inside, way back when _how could this human be so different?_, I was speechless. I couldn't fathom how a person could wield such a small thing and glide it across a surface with baffling accuracy and grace, building phony visions of real things in such unbelievable detail with charred wood and lame parchment, then, after I would speak up, only to plainly state, "Huh, you like it? Oh, it's nothin', but thanks." He wasn't proud of them, and he wasn't used to getting praise. He was more excited about my pathetic scrawling than his own. I couldn't understand it.

And to this day, nothing had really changed. The very creative creature would never cease to amaze me with his raw talent- drawing, forging, concepting, creating, and he would never really give himself the credit he deserved. He built, marveled a bit, and then moved on, a perpetual machine made to build machines, improving and evolving his quality all the time, casting only a second glance and then finding something else to give his attention. It was his hobby; I had grown so used to Hiccup being the very creative creature he was, my eyes didn't pop from my head anymore because it was what I expected from him. Nevertheless, it was far from _normal_ or _regular_ under any means. It was incredible and inspiring. He was incredible and inspiring. He was purposed to change the world for the better.

And, of course, sensing a whisper of faith in him like a bat in a cave, he came to swiftly to vanquish it before it could enjoy the sweet taste of life. Bounding up the stairs with a piece of bread in one hand, a blanket in the other, and his defining cheesy grin and dopey personality all about him, Hiccup looked excited.

"Oh man, bud," he talked through a mouthful of bread as he stumbled in the door of his room, crumbs falling out his mouth, "I just remembered, and I was wondering how-" was all he could say. With all his boundless creativity and enviable artistic talent, he glided through the door, gleaming with his crooked grin, and then he promptly tripped and smashed his face into the floor.

I jerked around and pulled him up, nudging him frantically until I realized it wasn't helping. || Cough it! Cough it out! || I yelled at him as he wretched and went pink. He choked and made noises, and tried a few times, panicking when it didn't budge from his throat.

|| Then swallow! _Swallow_! || I yelled at him. He continued to pointlessly attempt to gag and push it out, and only when I forced his mouth shut did he finally try swallowing.

It went down in one easy gulp. He sighed in relief and checked his tortured heart. "Whoa." he breathed. I only scowled at him.

He swallowed again. "Gah. Sorry. I was panicking. I'm fine." He said.

|| Damn your tiny throat. ||

He began to laugh, and then abruptly stopped. "Oh, ow, my head hurts. Am I bleeding?"

I rolled my eyes and and inspected it. || You're fine. Just another welt to go along with the other from last week. ||

The moment I licked his forehead, he was standing up. "Whoa! No. I could clean it myself if it was necessary thank you very much. That last lick was enough for one night." he walked to his bed and tossed on the blanket, getting ready for sleep. He started again as his shirt was wrapped around his head. "Anyway, uh, how did you know that that Scauldron was a man-eater right out of the gate? I was wondering about it all day." he asked.

I was startled at the sudden question. I sat up. || Well, I could smell it on him. Just like I could tell that he was a male and very old before we saw him. ||

"Oh, that's interesting. Was it as straightforward as smelling week-old human flesh and blood on his breathe?"

He wasn't quite serious, but I answered truthfully. || Yes. ||

He took another bite of his bread and murmured, "That's disturbing." proceeding to shake out his blanket.

|| It feels strange talking about yesterday so soon. || I admitted, feeling uncomfortable.

He looked back with a raised brow. "What do you mean? I thought we already talked about it, bud."

I shrugged, and he turned and plopped down. "It was just a big, dumb fight, right? We both got worked up and said things we didn't mean. Who cares." he sat back up again and asked. "Do you still have more to say about it?"

|| No, I do not think so. ||

"Well, okay then, Grumble Rump, let's talk about cooler stuff, like maybe..." he wondered as he fumbled with his leg, almost throwing it straight up when he found what what he wanted to talk about. "Oh, like, are there groups or dragon communities of some sort that hunt and eat humans for sport and can you tell me about them? Or are there even _dragon cannibals _among your kind? What about that?" His eyes glowed possibly a little too much at the question.

|| That is a morbid and dark story, but I'm surprised you haven't asked about it sooner. || I trumped to my heated rock and settled down.

"I may be disturbed, but how is that _not_ an interesting tale?"

I nodded thoughtfully. || Hm. It is a rather loaded question. It could take a while to get through it. ||

"We're both free all day tomorrow." he stated.

|| Could be scary. || I glared at him.

"Sleep is for the weak." he glared back.

I smirked. || Well, you might as well sleep with me then, and I can talk all night about step-by-step practices of my kind consuming your kind. I should let you know- I am an expert firsthand."

"Looking forward to it." the boy grinned as he scooped up all the pillows and blankets we'd need for the long night.

* * *

><p>AN: I want to apologize for the wait and the lack of quality, I suppose, at least compared to the other chapters (if you even noticed anything like that, I feel the need to say thanks, because that implies that my writing is even good at all, and I wonder about that everyday :) ) As with all my longer stories, I got bored with it and wanted to simply finish and move to on something else, and I rushed through it more than ever this time because I lost interest and I decided I wanted to take the next step and attempt writing a hopefully original full length practice-novel-or-whatever- to move on from fanfiction and do my own thing. Dunno when or _if_ I will be back, but I want to thank everyone that liked and reviewed my stories. It meant the world to me to know people cared and took interest in what I worked so hard on, and I am a much better and more confident writer/person because of it. I especially want to thank the people who were around when I posted my very first fic all that time ago, the terrible one (although still very experimental) and encouraged me to keep going, because they were truly the _first_, and I wouldn't still be pursuing this if it wasn't for them. Writing is what makes me happy, and I still got a long ways to go, but maybe one day I'll get to that _mythical place_ I dream of every night, whatever that place is and will be, I guess. I'm still not sure. I just hope it turns out to be something I can be proud of.

Anyway, it's 4am and I'm rambling and I need to sleep, so thank you so much for reading my story! I hope you liked it. Leave a review and let me know!

Thank you guys so much for everything. 3


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